Talk, Inc.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Walking the Talk

Kingfisher PLC

PICTURE A MARKETPLACE, an actual physical space where vendors can set up shop and showcase their products, and where customers can stroll from storefront to storefront, hoping to spot a choice find. This market, located in a city on the Mediterranean Sea, has more than a little in common with the classic bazaar of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern legend. It’s a noisy, compact area in which a scene of apparent chaos, marked by round after round of frenzied chatter, serves to conceal the orderly process by which eager sellers encounter willing buyers. Instead of wearing flowing robes of the kind that you might see in a traditional souk, however, the buyers and sellers who populate this bazaar wear ...